BTW, This is from A Conservative Teacher, with permission.
My oldest is in a pull out program that has pluses and minuses (the minuses seem to get more numerous as time goes along). The creepiest thing was studying what being “gifted” truly means (spending time on Covey’s teen “psuedo-religious” 7 Habits). They have done many useful projects as well (a character study with presentation in character of an important historical figure), and my daughter did a project on the requirements for becoming a vet and what it met to be a vet (I actually took her to the vet college and toured it).
The pull out situation sucks though. If good instruction is going on, you cannot learn unless you are present. The pull out reminds me of the old Harlan Ellison story in which everybody has to be equaled (the dancers had to wear weights etc). Pull out seems to be a way of handicapping the more proficient students. A way of getting over the fact that courses are not streamed except for Math and that is a story in itself.
As a side note, I started the year telling the teacher of my 6th grader that I wanted her in Pre-Algebra in 7th grade, and I viewed this accomplishment as being the most important goal for the year (she performs well in everything). Well this pull out crap left my daughter missing 40% of her instructional time in math. About a semester into the year I found out and raised heck. The teacher said she thought it did not matter since my daughter was “doing well”. She later withheld her recommendation for my daughter to enter Pre-Algebra in 7th grade (this despite the fact she has an A and a 94% on the ITBS). How you cannot be slotted for Algebra in 8th grade with a 94% in ITBS Math and an A in your class is beyond me.